


Kaleidoscope

by velocitygrass



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Cute John, Gen, Past
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-11-04
Updated: 2007-11-04
Packaged: 2018-01-03 09:27:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1068826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/velocitygrass/pseuds/velocitygrass
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"A telescope!" John cried, grabbing the tubular object. "Not quite. Try it."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kaleidoscope

**Author's Note:**

> Written based on a remark in Doppelganger. Many thanks to Neevebrody and Lavvyan for their notes and corrections. I accept full responsibility for this not working the way I want it to work. I hope you will still enjoy it.

"John?"

John looked up from playing with his race car.

"I've brought you a present."

At that, John jumped to his feet and ran down the stairs. Not because of the present, but because that voice meant that his dad was home.

He tackled him from behind, clutching his legs.

"What's that? Has a bear broken into the house?" his dad asked, faking panic.

"Roarrrr," John growled, peeking around his legs.

His dad pulled him up into his arms in one swift motion.

They glowered at each other until neither of them could keep their smile from coming through. John grinned and hugged his dad and put his head on his shoulder.

His dad kissed the top of his head. Carefully balancing John, he crouched down to remove something from his bag.

"A telescope!" John cried, grabbing the tubular object.

"Not quite. Try it."

John lifted it to his right eye, and closing his left, he peered through, expecting to see the couch magnified many times. Instead, he saw a jumbled mess.

"It's broken!"

His dad smiled.

"It's a special telescope. You turn it here," he pointed to the end, "and it will show you whatever you're looking at in a different way."

John tried it again. He concentrated, turning the cylinder, and his dad was right! John did recognize bits and pieces of the couch now and the wall behind. He turned the upper dial and everything switched around a bit, and he could still see what he was looking at, only in a completely different way.

He turned it away to the TV set, the table, the cupboard.

"Wow," he said, then turned his gift on his dad. He nearly dropped it at the sight. Half a nose, multiplied, then half an eye, multiplied, which was pretty freaky.

His dad set him down gently. "Why don't you go take a look at the world with your Kaleidoscope?"

"Clydoscope?"

"Ka-lei-do-scope," his dad answered more slowly and John repeated the word reverently, his eyes big and bright.

"Thanks, Dad!" A quick hug and kiss and he was off.

On the way outside, he stopped by the mirror to take a look at his own face through the kaleidoscope: An eye, his nose, his hair, his tongue. He shuddered, laughed, and ran out into the garden.

He took a close look at his mother's flowers and tried to adjust the top so that it would still look like a flower. It worked, but it wasn't perfect. He could still see the sharp lines where the magic of the kaleidoscope fractured and mirrored everything he looked at.

He stepped through the garden, looking at the grass and bugs. Even in the dirt on the ground, he could still see the lines, although John thought it just looked like a big brown blob. He checked out the wood of their picket fence and then the mortar of the house. Everywhere he looked, he could see the lines.

He lay down in the grass and looked at the sky. Even the clouds were fractured between the lines of the kaleidoscope that left nothing untouched by its magic.

But then, John found a spot that almost looked...

He shifted back his dad's gift to find that spot again and there it was! A clear blue spot, entirely intact and not fractured like the rest.

He scanned the sky and found more spots like that. He wanted to run inside and show his dad, but he figured his dad knew this already, he was a very smart man, and anyway, he had probably _wanted_ John to find out on his own. And John had done it!

A wide smile formed on his lips.

He set the kaleidoscope down on his chest and looked at the sky with his own eyes.

Some day he would be up there looking for the spots not even the magic of a kaleidoscope could make look strange and different. He was going to be a pilot and marry a great guy like his dad and have a son. And when his son was old enough, he'd bring him home a gift and let him look through it. He wouldn't say too much, but he'd send him outside on his own to take a look at the world.


End file.
